Oliver is born in a workhouse where he works under the supervision
of Widow Corney and Mr. Bumble, the beadle . His greed for wanting
more leads him to be sold to Sowerberry, the undertaker. Sowerberrys
family does not take to him and he runs away to London where he
falls in with Fagin and his band of pickpockets. Oliver is wrongly
accused of picking a gentlemans pocket, actually committed by
the Artful Dodger, and is taken into custody. The object of the
theft, Mr. Brownlow, takes Oliver into his home after Oliver is
cleared. He is recaptured by Nancy and her villainous boyfriend
Bill Sykes and returned to Fagin's band. Meanwhile, Olivers true
parentage is revealed through an unsuccessful blackmail attempt
by Corney and Bumble. Nancy later tries to return Oliver to the
wealthy .Mr. Brownlow but is murdered by her boyfriend. Bill Sykes
pays for his life of crime and Oliver is returned to the Brownlow
home. For a more detailed version, click here.

Children who are cast as workhouse orphans will appear in Act
I, Scene 1 and 2 only. They will enter the theatre from the lower
level, through the main theatre doors, perform their two songs
("Food, Glorious Food" and "Oliver") and then exit down the main
aisle out of the theatre. At that point, parents may take their
children home. Assuming that there will be some children who do
not leave at that point (and want to stay for the final curtain
call), we will have a system set in place to manage them. The
children will not be allowed backstage, but rather will be ushered
to another part of the Town Hall to be entertained until the show
is over. There will be live video monitors, so that children can
watch the show in progress. There will also be activities on hand
to keep these children entertained for the remainder of the show.
Parents of children cast in these roles will be required to put
in two evenings of supervision for the group. The goal is to have at least two adults on hand at all times
to keep the children entertained and relatively quiet for the
show duration.

A contract will be distributed at auditions which is an agreement
between the production team, the child, and the parent that the
child agrees that misbehavior and missing rehearsals can result
in the child being asked to leave the show. This contract will
also have the parents contract agreement that they will supervise
the orphans for two shows.